Since the other thread about fasting kind of scares me, I figured I'd start a new one... that doesn't involve fighting weight.

So my question is: Do you fast your dogs?

This subject seems to be quite controversial, and I'm attempting to learn why. As of right now, I do not fast my dogs intentionally, but they definitely skip a meal on occasion, but it's completely circumstantial. However, I do not have feelings one way or another towards fasting at this point in time.

I did just switch my dogs to feeding once a day... seeing how that goes as it is MUCH easier on all involved, including the dogs, I think.

BritneyP wrote:This subject seems to be quite controversial, and I'm attempting to learn why. As of right now, I do not fast my dogs intentionally, but they definitely skip a meal on occasion, but it's completely circumstantial. However, I do not have feelings one way or another towards fasting at this point in time.

I feel the exact same way.

There is a good article (I have to find it) that argues the benefits of fasting and feeding them at different times in the day etc in order to actually FILL them up.

BritneyP wrote:This subject seems to be quite controversial, and I'm attempting to learn why. As of right now, I do not fast my dogs intentionally, but they definitely skip a meal on occasion, but it's completely circumstantial. However, I do not have feelings one way or another towards fasting at this point in time.

I feel the exact same way.

There is a good article (I have to find it) that argues the benefits of fasting and feeding them at different times in the day etc in order to actually FILL them up.

I don't personally INTENTIONALLY fast my dogs...however, they have gone without meals just because we'll be training and it gets too late, etc.

In addition, I also feed once a day. I have found it to be easier but also more beneficial as my dogs are working dogs - and I'll explain this. I have found, at least with MY dogs, that their food drive (and drive, in general) stays MUCH higher when I only feed once a day. They're more likely to work for me. When I have tried to feed twice a day, I found that if I spontaneously want to do obedience (or bitework) with them in the afternoon, they don't work as well for me. I've had people make the argument that maybe I could just refrain from feeding in the mornings of days on which we train...but I don't always know the days that we will be training (and, sometimes, I come home from work and just feel like doing some obedience with a dog)...

I have also found that they poop less, stay leaner, and sleep better at night when we just feed once a day (in the evening)...

ParisStreetPitCrew wrote:Just curious as to your reasoning for switching to one meal a day?

I switched because I have a lot of dogs, most of them working dogs, and I was beginning to find that feeding 2x per day was a big inconvenience for THEM, not just me. I kind of run my house like a doggy daycare & they go out in groups several times a day for 30 minutes to an hour each time.. for this reason, when I'd let out in the morning, it could easily take 2+ hours to get them all in and out, so depending on when the first group went out, they were not eating breakfast sometimes until 12-1pm. I don't like that & because I work in the afternoons and have school in the evenings, it was limiting the amount of time I could let them out for during the day because I wait a good solid 1-1.5 hours before I will let them out again after eating. All of that, coupled with the fact that I TRY to feed them 12 hours apart, meant that they often didn't eat dinner til 10pm or later, which in turn didn't give them enough time to digest and go to the bathroom when we let them out for the last time at night, so I was frequently spending mornings cleaning kennels with poop and pee in them.

The reasons Katrina listed are very valid too. It's only been about a week, and I have had some vomiting & diarrhea that I'm not super thrilled about, but I'm hoping they're just adjusting... we'll see.

I dont fast my dogs, I feed twice a day..usually about 7am and 7pm. If Spicy and Rifle have training they eat breakfast and they dont eat dinner. I find that Rifle was puking on training days if I fed him dinner. They get out a couple of times at night after they have eaten. I also tend to fall asleep on the couch and wake up around three am and they get to go out before I go to bed and then they still wake me up at 6-630 to go out in the am!

I wouldn't fast for other than medical reasons, I'd have no valid reasoning to do this. Jessie is fed twice a day, depending on my schedule. Being in school full time and working during the week and weekends made it hard to feed her on a strict schedule, so she just is used to kind of eat whenever I feed her.I TRY to make it as close to a 12 hour apart schedule but because of above mentioned reasons, it often doesn't happen and although it somewhat sucks, as a result I end up having a dog that does not bug me until I put my hand in her bag of food.

Now that I'm away BF is caring for her while I'm away and he has a more decent schedule so she'll be on the clock when I come back!

I feed raw & once a day. I do fast them occasionally but not as often as I used to. They were fasted once a week. I did it to clean out their systems, give their digestive system a rest since they digest bones and raw meat. Now we usually just have a fast day if I am low on food & dont have enough for all of them or I am out completely. They now get fasted about once a month, if that much.

There's a fine line between genius and insanity. I have erased this line.

I do not fast. I would die if I fasted my dogs. Heck, I feel guilty when I have to skip the morning meal if they have a vet appointment and bloodwork!!

I also feed twice a day. Is it a pain in the ass for me when I wake up late and I'm trying to race out the door? Sure. Is it better for my dogs? Absolutely. Though raw fed dogs aren't as prone to bloat, it is definitely something I worry about, thus preferring to break up their food into 2 meals a day. Plus my dogs are constantly starving to death (according to them) so feeding them twice a day keeps them pretty much satisfied so I don't have to kill them for annoying me.

I have working dogs, as well, but I don't abide by the "one meal a day" mentality. Their food drive is so high that I could have just stuffed 4 pounds of meat into them and they'd still take off my fingers to get treats. And on nights that we train and don't get back until midnight/1am I give them their dinner the second we get home. I see no need to skip meals unless for a medical reason (and even when it comes to diarrhea I have a difficult time skipping).

"All changes, even the most longed for, have their melancholy; for what we leave behind us is a part of ourselves; we must die to one life before we can enter another." -Anatole France

I'm pretty much like you Sis. Soleil's food drive is extremely high, so eating doesn't slow her down much. I feed raw 2x a day. Weight pullers will often fast a dog about 24 hours before weigh in. Not me, I'll just withhold breakfast until after weigh in. I don't think Soleil has ever missed a meal, although she's had plenty of late ones and tiny ones. Xanny gets kind of dry heaves if she goes without eating too long, now that she's 10. She'll puke up bile in the middle of the night. I think the raw digests quickly, and leaves her with an acidy stomach. If I give her a few biscuits or some whole wheat bread before bed, or before I leave for work.

SisMorphine wrote:I also feed twice a day. Is it a pain in the ass for me when I wake up late and I'm trying to race out the door? Sure. Is it better for my dogs? Absolutely.

Do you mean to say it's better for YOUR dogs specifically, or dogs in general? Reason I ask is, I wouldn't think it would be very fair to make the claim that it is better for everyone's dogs...

I know that I can personally attest to the condition, health and attitudes of every single dog in Katrina's house (not trying to single you out, Katrina! ) and they all look absolutely fabulous, and all are fed once a day.

On nights I wouldn't get home from training til 12/1am, my dogs would not get fed. Since I'd have to let everyone out after I got home, we typically aren't going to bed until 2-2:30, and I just do not think my dogs should be eating that late, and then again at 9-10am. I don't like feeding them when I can't let them out again a few hours later.

I feed once a day, I just DON'T have time to feed in the morning so they eat once at night. My dogs can be a little restless at night, and it seems that eating a big meal in the evening helps them to settle down better. They don't eat until right before I go to bed, though, so that I can play with them all evening.

Sometimes its circumstantial, however I've noticed that if my dog goes without food for 12 hrs that he will sometimes vomit bile.

I don't have specific times I feed at, its kind of "when I remember" unless I'm at work and then its on my break. I mainly aim for a certain amount of food per day. I occaisionally get "asked" for food, but its so infrequent that he gets it as I figure he's gotta be really hungry.

I can only please one person per day. Today is not your day, tomorrow doesn't look good either.
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"You didn't know of the magical powers of the break stick? It's up there with genies and Harry Potter as far as magic levels go." SisMorphine 01/07/07

SisMorphine wrote:I also feed twice a day. Is it a pain in the ass for me when I wake up late and I'm trying to race out the door? Sure. Is it better for my dogs? Absolutely.

Do you mean to say it's better for YOUR dogs specifically, or dogs in general? Reason I ask is, I wouldn't think it would be very fair to make the claim that it is better for everyone's dogs...

I know that I can personally attest to the condition, health and attitudes of every single dog in Katrina's house (not trying to single you out, Katrina! ) and they all look absolutely fabulous, and all are fed once a day.

On nights I wouldn't get home from training til 12/1am, my dogs would not get fed. Since I'd have to let everyone out after I got home, we typically aren't going to bed until 2-2:30, and I just do not think my dogs should be eating that late, and then again at 9-10am. I don't like feeding them when I can't let them out again a few hours later.

Nope, you're fine! And thank you for the compliment! I like to think that our dogs look and act great, but it's nice to hear it from someone else...

And, trust me, Sis, my dogs have a ton of food drive - even when they eat...however, I see my dogs WORK better when they haven't eaten - I don't (for the most part) use food when I train (I say that b/c I only use food when they're learning something new): they run faster, they bite harder, and they show much more enthusiasm during obedience even though they don't receive food as a reward during those times.